


Brooke, Lost

by Canneberge



Category: Be More Chill - Iconis/Tracz
Genre: Actual plot, But also romance don't worry, F/F, F/M, Gen, Lots of platonic friendship, M/M, Much like a real book, Not all the relationships listed here will necessarily be longterm/endgame/non-platonic, Not necessarily LohstValentine focused, Realistic depictions of high school, Where you have to read it to find out who ends up together, Whoa
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-04
Updated: 2018-01-04
Packaged: 2019-02-28 00:57:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13260234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Canneberge/pseuds/Canneberge
Summary: High school isn't fun for anyone, but every school has that chosen few who seem to glide above it all. So far, Brooke has managed to cling to her spot as low-grade high school royalty, until someone spikes the juice at their after-school play with Japanese supercomputers and everything goes to shit.Also, Brooke used to LIKE Mountain Dew. So now that's ruined, too.Post-canon & canon compliant(OR: The author's new year's resolution was to only write things with puns for titles. Please excuse this summary, for I am not a summary pro. I recommend reading the tags)





	Brooke, Lost

**Author's Note:**

> Updates after this will be much longer! This first one is just mini to gauge interest & get me back into writing fanfic after several months of inactivity.  
> I'm a lil rusty so hopefully the quality will improve as this goes on
> 
> xx C

**SATURDAY**

   Brooke was very, very good at acting. Everyone thought she was terrible at it, which was a little annoying. Of course, they had no reason to think otherwise; her only performance, as far as her friends knew, was the one she had put on for the after-school play, and that had certainly been… lacking. What her friends didn’t realise was that the subpar performance was all part of her master plan. It was necessary for everyone to think her acting was bad, so they wouldn’t realise that she was acting  _ all the time. _

   The only downside to the whole ordeal was that she didn’t get any credit for the skill it took to convince everyone that she was a shallow little puppy, happy to follow Chloe from a carefully measured distance, happy to date whoever the high school pecking order deemed she should, happy to get mediocre grades to avoid the cursed title of nerd. She regulated all her actions, and dressed deliberately (always fashionable, but never more so than Chloe). So, maybe it was because she had essentially been her own squip for so long that she found Jeremy Heere’s dedication to his robot a little… stupid. Obviously, she couldn’t judge him for his reasons, since she knew exactly what it was like to make decisions based on what the masses would think. It was just a little pathetic that Jeremy couldn’t figure out the right things to say, or do, or whatever, by himself. Did he really need a whole other person telling him? Come on, Jer, it’s called observation. The rest of us have to become popular on our own. 

   The lanky boy on the hospital bed in front of her coughed lightly in his sleep, and Brooke immediately felt bad. What was she thinking?  _ Not everyone can know what to say all the time, Brooke, God. Just because you’re crazy observant doesn’t mean most people are. Don’t be such a bitch.  _ Chloe Valentine, Brooke’s best friend, echoed Jeremy’s cough from the uncomfortable plastic chair next to hers, in a move clearly meant to signal impatience.

   “Brookey, darling, as thrilling as it is to watch your ex-kind-of-boyfriend sleep… it’s super boring, so can we please leave? Or can I at least write on Rich’s forehead while he sleeps?” The other girl directed the words towards Jeremy’s unconscious form, only turning to face Brooke after she had finished speaking, with a practised pout on her glossy lips.

   “Is the great Chloe Valentine really asking permission from her lowly beta?” Brooke asked, feigning shock.

   “I call you my beta one time, and I never live it down. You weren’t even there when I said it.”

   “Yeah, but you were talking to Jenna, so I may as well have been,” Brooke pointed out. Chloe rolled her eyes and huffed in faux annoyance as she unfolded herself from the chair.

   “Ugh, Jenna Rolan. Remind me why we talk to her?” 

   “Because she knows everything about everyone,” Brooke suggested, echoing Chloe’s motions and extracting herself from the plastic deathtrap, perhaps a little less gracefully than her friend had done. She unhooked her purse from the back of the seat. 

   “You up for Pinkberry?”

   “Always.” There was a pause, and then Chloe winked. “You’re paying.”

 

***

 

**MONDAY**

   Brooke had been grateful that it was a Friday when all the Squip Shit had gone down, to use Rich’s delicate title for the events of Midsummer's opening night. She had hoped, foolishly, that things would be back to normal by Monday. For the first few periods, it actually seemed as if they may be. Sure, everyone who had been ‘squipped’ at the play seemed a little tired, but everyone had retreated to their usual spots on the social ladder. Brooke made it through homeroom, history, and even math without a hitch. By the time she walked into the lunch line with Chloe, who was talking about a new pair of shoes she had ordered on Saturday (“They said ‘one-day shipping!’ But they didn’t come on Sunday, and it turns out there’s no mail on Sundays! Can you  _ believe? _ ”) she was feeling pretty sure of herself. 

   Because, if she was being totally honest for once, it had been kind of hard to force herself back into her old role after the Squip ordeal. Being squipped wasn’t good, she knew that. Obviously. But she had kind of liked feeling so connected to everyone else. She hung around them all the time, and yet she was well aware that they presented a fake, polished version of themselves, just like she did. She had spent the entire weekend wondering what it would be like to have that feeling of total understanding Squip-free, just by talking to her friends. Which was why it was so important that she get back to her old routine as quickly as possible. If she didn’t remember how fantastic it was being the second-most popular girl in school real quick, she might do something she would regret, like trying to have a heart-to-heart with Jenna Rolan.

   Chloe waved a manicured hand in Brooke’s face, snapping her out of her reverie. 

   “Hel-loo, earth to Brooke? Are you gonna get sushi or not?” Chloe demanded. Brooke realised she was standing in front of the school’s questionable-looking ‘sushi’ selection, with fifty-odd hungry students behind her.

   “Oh– yeah, just deciding between California rolls and… negimaki?” Brooke improvised, stumbling over the name.

   “Get the negimaki,” Chloe suggested. “We’re too far from Cali for the California roll to be any good.” Brooke was pretty sure that wasn’t how it worked, but she certainly didn’t want to argue with Chloe (or hold up the line any longer) so she grabbed the beef roll and slid her tray to the checkout counter. The girls paid, and Brooke returned to her thoughts until she and Chloe had made it safely to their usual table, where the infamous Jenna Rolan was already seated. Everything was as it should be, and all was well in Brooke’s world. 

   Except next to Jenna was a thoroughly unexpected addition to the table: The antisocial headphones guy who was always hanging out with Jeremy, hunched silently over his lunch tray. His hood obscured most of his face, but the rainbow of patches covering the fabric was unmistakable. It was definitely him.

   Shit. Things were definitely not back to normal.

**Author's Note:**

> Heeeeere's MIKEY!  
> Wait that was supposed to be a Shining reference not a Heere/here pun  
> I realise that there isn't a whole lotta plot in this update, and I promise next time will be lots longer & lots more dramatic  
> Anyway~ leave comments & subscribe! Constructive criticism is vv welcome
> 
> xxTheRealCanneberge


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